A sketch-based interface for clothing virtual characters

We present a new method for interactively creating
garments for dressing virtual characters. The user
draws an outline of the front and back of the garment,
and the system makes reasonable geometric
inferences about the overall shape of the garment
(ignoring constraints arising from physics). Both the
garment's shape and the way the character is wearing
it are determined at once. We use the distance from
the 2D garment silhouette to the character model
to infer the variations of the distance between the
remainder of the garment and the character in 3D.
The garment surface is generated from the silhouette
and border lines and this varying distance information,
using a distance field to the character's body.
This method is integrated in an interactive system
in which the user sketches the garment over the 3D
model of the character. Our results show that the
system can be used to create a broad range of clothes
that may be worn in a variety of ways.